Performance of ion-exchanger grafted textiles for industrial water treatment in dynamic reactors

The performance of a special class of grafted textiles in removing metal cations from industrial wastewaters was examined in continuous reactors. The influence of various parameters on the ion exchange process (reactor geometry, inlet metal ion concentration, solution flow rate, concentration and type of reagent, etc.) was studied over the complete service cycle of the exchanger (saturation, desorption, regeneration, rinsing). Dynamic ion exchange characteristics were determined and compared with those of resins under identical operating conditions. Higher efficiency of fibrous ion exchangers compared to analogous resins, was shown at all stages of the service cycle. Results were expressed as a function of breakthrough capacity, exchanger utilisation efficiency, volume of solution treated, eluted metal concentration. The use of different reactor geometries showed two of the many possible applications of grafted textiles in water treatment processes.